signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: Roberts Gallery, Toronto ON
As early as 1896, J. E. H. MacDonald began exploring the vast 400 acre High Park located in Toronto’s West End. The park, with its rich natural reserve, served as a prime location for the artist to observe and record, with subject matter that included dense forest, grassland, an abundance of native species, and the impressive Grenadier pond.
This area held a sentimental history for MacDonald as well. Following his honeymoon in 1899, MacDonald and his new wife rented a cottage nearby on Quebec Avenue, two years later building a family home on the same street. It was here that his son, artist Thoreau MacDonald, was born. From his home on Quebec Ave, MacDonald would walk to the park, sketch book and paints in hand.
In 1907, upon returning from a trip to England, MacDonald became head designer of Grip Limited, the same year that Tom Thomson joined the firm. The two artists spent much time together discussing materials, techniques, and locations. MacDonald’s and Thompson’s works from this formative period share similarities, as both artists were seeking to define their personal style. In 1911, MacDonald exhibited a number of sketches, many painted in High Park. The show was so well received that MacDonald left his job at Grip to freelance, so that he could spend more time on his painting. In response to the exhibition, Lawren Harris was struck by the particularly Canadian subject matter and technique. A. Y. Jackson, who met MacDonald around this time, would later write that MacDonald “was probably the first to dream of a school of painting in Canada that would realize the wealth of motifs we had around us”. (p. 29 “A Painter’s Country, The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson”; Clarke, Irwin & Company Ltd.; 1958″. There is no doubt that the early years that J. E. H. MacDonald spent sketching in and around High Park had a profound effect on the artist;s development; this early work helped him to forge the connection between art and the land, a connection that would go on to define Canadian art.
